The Urban Web - Derelict Thursday

DERELICT THURSDAY Challenge - Week SIX

Please tag ALL entries 'derelict Thursday' - without the inverted commas.

My offering is a smashed shop door, that had also been whitewashed. Taken in the dull weather with the Sigma 105mm macro, I added heaps of contrast and some sharpening to make the most of it.

LARGE

Also, the last of my Funfair Blips from last year is in the thumbnail below right.

Entries received so far this week:

Miffy
Rainie
dennisjorgensen
Mario
jensphotos
BikerBear
ninniex
SwillinBilly
FoundMoments
tedwin
Himself
ThingsBeautiful
Mindseye
Naturelover
freespiral
DavidKeith
lynnfot
Freyjad
CleanSteve
RedKite
Paused
KF
madwill
weeflecky
Bevie
AngelsShare
RockArea
JennyD
Veronica
Fluffikens
Don2532
BobsBlips
sdg92
iPhoneographer
martindawe
colinbarber013
Susanna
Elwetritsche
osuzanna
NewburyJames
marpaul
nickimages888
GEO2B
JenMoore64
Treshnish
davidd
shotfromacanon
Philiphoto
Inverculain
MrsHart3
Nanzy19
jinglyjan
dollydoug
Apothercary7
Dollygray
kit267
lippinfou
TonyLuxton
SherriM
FourSeasoned
Dotsnaps
ElectricFish
LAS
misswinterfinch
journeysprocess
TeaganRose
mikeday
RaspberryJefe
RSL
mollyblobs
Beckett

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5

ALL entries

Uncheck little boxes

We've all heard horror stories about online shopping and contracts that are the stuff of nightmares.

I'm NOT an IT whizz by any stretch of the imagination BUT here is an essential golden tip for you all.

We cannot read the contracts that we supposedly sign our lives away all the way through - we'd have to be legal experts and have nothing else to do. They all insist that you 'agree', or if you don't, the whole thing is cancelled and the link is closed.

Whether it's accepting the latest Java system or Adobe Flash, they all have one thing in common. Opting out. It's easy and quick to see what boxes they have ticked already for you, by default. In many, if not in most cases, you can click on al of them to remove the tick and you'll still get the product or service that you were wanting or accepting.

It can often be receiving email, phone calls, texts etc both from first party (the actual firm you are dealing with) but also secondary (every other firm out there) that you agree to receive, if you don't opt out. And this is common practice from major High Street firms, such as banks, mobile phone and ISP providers - just read what it says you'll get and simply opt out.

Why am I writing this today?

My PC is over two years old and despite undertaking the usual registry cleans and tasks, it had got to the stage where opening up Blip on start-up was taking three or four minutes. Everyday actions were taking an age, both frustrating and annoying.

iolo System Mechanic - is a downloadable repair mechanic that found, in its analysis some slightly worrying statistics about my operating system - and more importantly, how quickly and easily it could all be fixed!

Naturally and unsurprisingly, I was faced with a bill for £24 odd, for a year, if I wanted to continue. As I paid by card, I glanced over the contract before 'submitting'. Rather than clicking the big green GO button, I scrolled down. This is when I found that the box saying "Renew payment automatically" had been ticked by default.

Recurring payments without the customer knowing is the biggest online buying complaint but as I demonstrate, it is easy to solve, simply by clicking just one click.

Did iolo work?

It's already done the basic clean-up which solved all the initial issues. It's now running an in-depth clean-up, which is taking hours. I'm not necessarily recommending or endorsing this product but opening up Blip in Windows Explorer from 'cold' took seconds, rather than minutes. I'm rather hoping that my many 'time-outs' in Blip might get reduced too. That would make its cost price worthwhile! More importantly, it didn't cause any extra problems and certainly looks impressive during its operation. I'm sure that are many and similar systems out there that do much the same thing.